Once Upon Another Time
by singformeangelofmusic
Summary: The chandelier has fallen, decisions been made clear, and yet...the curtain does not close but raises to an entirely new adventure. Christine seeks out her Phantom weeks before she is to be wed and re-enters the mirror and the world of her forlorn mentor. Shortly after when her life is left in ruins by the rumored Opera Ghost, where will the would-be countess turn?
1. Prologue

**Prologue **

My eyes open to unfamiliar surroundings, I am disoriented. I slowly lift my body from the spot in which I had been lying as I slowly recall the night before. The cold stone floor is rough beneath my bare feet as I drag them forward in the darkness.

I remembered.

I recalled the sweet but rough masculine scent, soft blue eyes, the low light of a million candles, and the tingle of gentle fingertips across my bare skin. Behind my fluttering eyelids flashed the memory of the way he touched me, the way he breathed my name, the way he loved me… While desperate emotions pulsed through my veins regret for returning for my angel was not one of them.

I was Christine Daae, the promising new diva of the Opera Populair, and I was missing. The act of vanishing was one I had become familiar with since I met _him_. It was merely a month since the fateful night the chandelier fell and rained death and fear upon the Opera Populair and already I had journeyed into the night once more. I sang softly as I searched for the unearthly voice that had disappeared as if it truly belonged to a phantom:

_Who was that shape in the shadows? Who's is the face in the mask? _

I echoed my words from song's past and waited for a soothing reply. But the stone walls reverberated nothing. I stood in silence…cold, bewildered, and more than anything _alone_.


	2. Chapter One

The streets were dark in Paris as I fled through the night. I struck a match and lit a candle as I entered through a remote door only a few chorus girls had knowledge of. I was wary as I moved silently towards the dressing room that contained my last shred of hope. Besides Erik (as I had finally discovered his real name was) and Madame Giry, I was the only soul who knew of the mirror entrance to his lair. It was not very probable he retained his presence in the Opera, but my heart led me fleeing into the night with a feeling of desperation, and this was the only location I knew to search.

It had been a month since the opera had partially burned, and the productions had been postponed then eventually cancelled and the performers evacuated. The place that I had always held so sacred was now in disarray and shambles.

I now entered the room that held the infamous mirror. I breathed the ashen air deeply and prayed that my Angel of Music was not left in ruin as his opera was. I placed my hands upon the outer edges of the intricate gold frame and heaved. The sound seemed to fill the entire building and suddenly I became alarmed. But there was no one to hear me, so I took an even deeper breath and pushed again and the mirror began to move; a few seconds later there was an opening large enough for my body to slide through.

I held my small light at the level of my eyes, and nervously proceeded down the passageway until water came into my view. There was no boat resting near the edge of the water. My heart raced. "This could mean the boat lie at the other side… in the Phantom's lair. Which could mean he is inside" I thought. Or it could mean nothing at all. My heart raced as I panicked as to how I would cross the lake, and before I knew it my feet were at the edge of icy water.

I waded deeper and deeper into the lake. I held my candle high above the water as it reached my shoulders. I began to trudge through the passage as my soaked gown weighed me down heavily. My mind recalled the very first time I laid my eyes on my angel, how we floated along this very water as I sat mesmerized by his voice and fell deeper and deeper under his spell as we sang back and forth to one another. Then I remembered the moment I betrayed him in front of all of Paris and the way my hands ripped at his mask and the longing and forlorn look on his face only seconds before I reached for it. Then at last I heard the ache in his voice as I departed from him for the last time as he roared _"It's over now the music of the night…"_ But then I recalled how he had deceived me also, "I gave you my mind blindly" I cried on the fateful night of the burning of the Opera.

I gathered myself as I made it near what looked like the end of the passage when the ground suddenly dropped off and my body plunged into deeper waters and my feet could not find ground. My candle wick made a hissing noise as it reached the water and then my world was in complete darkness.

Fear had me by the throat as I released the useless light into the water and used my arms at an attempt at staying above the surface. My breathing accelerated, my arms flailed wildly, and I yelled breathlessly "Angel, do you hear me in your darkness? I drown in your labyrinth as do I in my own regret for betraying you!"

But the only noise I could hear was the sound of my own breathlessness and in that moment I knew I would die.

I struggled to find a wall or a more shallow part of water for what seemed like hours. My lungs begged for air as the black lake pressed against them and my legs wildly sought ground to stand. I was tired. That is when my limbs slowly began to still and give in to the darkness, and my head slipped beneath the surface towards what seemed like peace. I was so tired… I only needed rest.

As I allowed myself to drift towards the bottom of the lake and what I assumed would have been death, a plunge reverberated throughout the water. Frantic sounds drew closer and I vaguely wondered if the alligators and beasts did fill the water beneath the opera house as they had filled the legends and absurd stories about the infamous ghost.

It felt as if I was drifting into a peaceful sleep when two large hands clutched at my arms and pulled me close and then all the way up to the surface. Blackness still surrounded my stranger and me as he breathed the aching words _"My Christine."_


	3. Chapter Two

In what I assumed to be Erik's arms I sputtered water from my lungs helplessly in the dark. My world was in a fuzzy blur. He did not speak again as he drug both of us forward to land. With his cat like vision and sharp memory it was as if he could see in the darkness. As I lay blindly on the bank he used his hands to force more liquid from my lungs, and then suddenly his mouth was on mine pushing swift breaths into my body.

"Christine, Christine" he breathed in a strange tone. His mouth was no longer on mine as he placed both hands on the sides of my face. I could hear his heavy breathing although I could not see his face.

"Erik" I managed to choke out. When I spoke I felt his hands jerk away from me as if he was wary to touch me ever again.

I reached out into the darkness and one hand met mask and the other touched the slightly scruffy side of his unmarred half. I heard him wince.

I could not think of anything to say to this man behind the mask and my heart ached. We had destroyed each other even as in the beginning it seemed as if we would only make each other glow. He had trained me under his loving hand and finally had someone to bring his song to life, and I would rise to the Opera Populair's stage as the new Prima Donna. But the Opera burned along with our shattered hopes and here we lay in darkness, both of us nearly dead.

All of Paris truly believed him dead, and believed I was to marry and become a countess in dizzying happiness. I thought I knew what my heart desired, but as I lay awake and alone in a fine home my thoughts consumed me… the music consumed me. The moonlight shone into the bedroom window on my sleepless figure and the Angel of Music sang songs in my head. The melodies had not ceased since the night my lips met his for the first time. It was if I had truly been touched by an Angel. I knew I was to marry Raoul, but I could not continue without hearing that unearthly voice ease my aching soul one last time.

I had been so infuriated with him as he plunged us both down into his labyrinth that night. I thought I hated him, I had no fear for his deformity… I sliced him into a thousand pieces as I told him the fatal flaw was not his face but his soul.

My hatred and anger burned so brightly… until I realized how broken he was. His soul ached too just as mine had, and I crossed the shallows of the lake in pity and placed my lips on his.

"_God give me courage to show you, you are not alone" _I sang softly and sadly to my Angel.

He cried out then like the shattered child I knew he still was, as the sound of a hundred angry Parisians began flooding the catacombs.

Then suddenly with the humanity I finally saw he possessed he let Raoul and I go free.

Time was passing immeasurably as I lay silently with my hands on his face, lost in thought.

"Erik, I know I must go. But my heart, it burns. It burns brightly with your song. My mind will always be wandering these catacombs searching for your song. Say you'll sing for me just once more." I whispered.

Silently he picked me up in his arms and carried me in the darkness; he placed me somewhere soft that might have been a small bed. Then one candle was lit in the distance and still I could scarcely see.

In that moment he knew what my words had really meant and he breathed them in and when his mouth opened he exhaled them into a strange melody:

"_Who knows when love begins, who knows what makes it start? _

_One day it's simply there, alive inside your heart…_

_It slips into your thoughts, it infiltrates your soul._

_It takes you by surprise… then seizes full control. _

_Try to deny it and try to protest…_

_But love won't let you go…_

_Once you've been possessed."_

I wept then. The melody filled my soul and my heart became so full it felt as if it would burst.

"I composed that a fortnight after the first time I appeared in your mirror, although that is the entirety of what I have completed… I just lack the…" his voice trailed off, and once again the infamous Phantom was vulnerable and silent. His demeanor was always that of strong, clever, and superior. Only that fateful night and in this moment had I witnessed it melting away.

"It is lovely..."

"It is for you… you have inspired my song Christine. Since the moment I became your teacher my music was finally brought to life. Losing you has meant losing my music also."

He spoke to me gently, but then a little gruffer he asked "You come back to hear your Angel once more?"

"I cannot marry Raoul" and even I was surprised at the words that came from my mouth.

He was silent for a while then he said "You have already made your choice, the portcullis closed on you and your lover that night."

What was this nameless emotion coursing through my veins? I felt as if my body could not hold it; I did not fear Erik as I once had. Although my physical eyes were blind in the dim light, I saw into him as if his soul had become illuminated with the most brilliant sun.

I leaned forward slowly and let out a breath so he was aware I was nearing him.

Then my lips touched his and it was even more dazzling than the time I had thought I was kissing him out of pity.

My veins exploded with euphoria and his lips began moving against mine. Then a hand placed in my hair, and I was flying. My heart thumped out of control and I gripped both sides of his face and began to slide the mask away.

He froze. "I am not afraid." I told him.

He surrendered to me for the first time and that night we gazed into each other's souls.

That night as we made love I said "I love you" and he wept once more.

I lay against his chest after it was all done and thought and wandered to myself how I had ended up here. I could not be a countess, I could not marry into nobility when performing and drowning myself in song was all I ever desired to do. I felt alive with Erik suddenly, he understood me. He saw into my grief and he raised me up. I knew in that moment I would vanish from the De Changy household for good, and I would trail after Erik wherever he would go. I fell asleep finally in contentment after the long months of confusion and unrest.

But when the morning sun rose and I awoke he had disappeared, as if he was truly a Phantom of the night…


End file.
